ASP.NET Boilerplate adding an additional log file with Log4Net and Castle Logging - log4net

I've been trying to find documentation and guidance on how to use a separate log file in ASP.NET Boilerplate MVC.
It's straight forward to inject ILogger and push messages into the default Log.txt file, however I need a separate log file to record a lot of batch job messages and keep things tidy.
I can't find any methods to use another log from the Log4Net.config file. Can anyone advise on the correct code / configuration?

So I found the answer by chance in looking at the Hangfire documentation, where it was shown you can configure Hangfire messages to be sent to another log file by getting Log4Net to listen for the Hangfire name and route based on that.
With the following additional configuration in Log4Net.config I now have Log messages created normally within MyClass sent to the MyClass.txt log file:
<appender name="RollingFileAppender_MyClass" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender" >
<file value="App_Data/Logs/MyClass.txt" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<rollingStyle value="Size" />
<maxSizeRollBackups value="32" />
<maximumFileSize value="10000KB" />
<staticLogFileName value="true" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%-5level %date [%-5.5thread] %-40.40logger - %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
<logger additivity="false" name="MyNamespace.MyClass">
<level value="DEBUG" />
<appender-ref ref="RollingFileAppender_MyClass" />
</logger>
And for completeness, it's called in the standard way documented within the AspNet Boilerplate documentation:
https://aspnetboilerplate.com/Pages/Documents/Logging

Way-1:
In this sample, the default log file is App_Data/Logs/Logs.txt.
But when I use the logger in the namespace MySite.Web.Controllers.PaymentController, the logs will be written in App_Data/Logs/PaymentLogs.txt
log4net.config
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<log4net>
<appender name="RollingFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender" >
<file value="App_Data/Logs/Logs.txt" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<rollingStyle value="Size" />
<maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
<maximumFileSize value="10000KB" />
<staticLogFileName value="true" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%-5level %date [%-5.5thread] %-40.40logger - %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
<appender name="RollingFileAppender_PaymentController" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender" >
<file value="App_Data/Logs/PaymentLogs.txt" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<rollingStyle value="Size" />
<maxSizeRollBackups value="32" />
<maximumFileSize value="10000KB" />
<staticLogFileName value="true" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%-5level %date [%-5.5thread] %-40.40logger - %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
<root>
<appender-ref ref="RollingFileAppender" />
<level value="DEBUG" />
</root>
<logger name="NHibernate">
<level value="WARN" />
</logger>
<logger name="MySite.Web.Controllers.PaymentController" additivity="false">
<appender-ref ref="RollingFileAppender_PaymentController" />
<level value="DEBUG" />
</logger>
</log4net>
Way-2:
You can get a specific logger by calling LogManager.GetLogger() with a appender name.
private static readonly ILog paymentLogger = LogManager.GetLogger("MySite.Web.Controllers.PaymentController");

Related

How can I specify an absolute file path in log4net, with a datePattern?

I want log files to be written to a directory where log files are kept. I'm using a RollingFileAppender with a datePattern. Here is what I have that doesn't work:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<log4net>
<appender name="RollingFile" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<file value="x:\Logs\log" />
<immediateFlush value="true" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<datePattern value="yyyyMMdd"/>
<maximumFileSize value="10MB" />
<maxSizeRollBackups value="5" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%date %level %thread %logger - %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
<root>
<level value="DEBUG" />
<appender-ref ref="RollingFile" />
</root>
</log4net>
I'm hoping this will result in something like:
x:\Logs\log-20211026.log
Instead I get
x:\Logs\log
Examples that I've seen use no path, e.g.:
<file value="log">
<datePattern value="yyyyMMdd"/>
Is there a way to have the data pattern, and an absolute path, and ".log" at the end?
Someone at my work had the answer:
The file name should contain the extention and 2 additional properties need to be set:
<file value="x:\Logs\log.log"/>
<preserveLogFileNameExtention value="true"/>
<staticLogFileName value="false"/>

Log4net error with XmlHierarchyConfigurator. Missing Filter Property

One of our WebApis stopped outputting logs recently. In the Trace file we were getting this message:
log4net:ERROR XmlHierarchyConfigurator: Cannot find Property [filter] to set object on [log4net.Repository.Hierarchy.Hierarchy]
The config file looks as below and I'm assuming the filter in the error is the same filter in the config so I'm not sure why it can't find it.
I upgraded to the latest version of log4net and that solved the issue for a few days and then we got the "Cannot find Property [filter]" error again. The config file hasn't changed at all over this period.
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="log4net"
type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net" />
</configSections>
<log4net>
<root>
<level value="ALL" />
<appender-ref ref="RollingFileAppender"/>
</root>
<filter type="log4net.Filter.LevelMatchFilter">
<acceptOnMatch value="true" /> <!--change to false to exclude info logs -->
<levelToMatch value="INFO" />
</filter>
<appender name="RollingFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<file value="Logs/Log.txt" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<rollingStyle value="Size" />
<maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
<maximumFileSize value="1001KB" />
<staticLogFileName value="true" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level: %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
</log4net>
</configuration>
It's weird that it worked for a while, stopped, updgraded, worked for a while, stopped. I'm at at loss as to what could have changed to make it stop working either time.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Your configuration is not valid.
A filter can only be defined within an appender.
The documentation mentions:
Filters elements may only be defined as children of <appender>
elements.
Move the filter definition to the appender as shown below.
<appender name="RollingFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<filter type="log4net.Filter.LevelMatchFilter">
<acceptOnMatch value="true" /> <!--change to false to exclude info logs -->
<levelToMatch value="INFO" />
</filter>
<file value="Logs/Log.txt" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<rollingStyle value="Size" />
<maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
<maximumFileSize value="1001KB" />
<staticLogFileName value="true" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level: %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
(I can't explain why the error only occurs at certain/random times; probably it (re-)occurs at configuration time eg. after an website/appdomain recycle) ...
In the end, Log4net tries to keep continuing as much as possible.

How to define different logger levels per appenders

I'm trying to define 2 independent appenders to log into to 2 files. I define
DEBUG level for the "DebugAppender" and then for the "RelevantAppender" I define different levels for the "Security" and "ServerStats" loggers.
The thing is that these loggers definitions are overwriting my "DebugAppender" levels and now it's not in DEBUG mode (all the loggers).
How can make it work as expected?
<log4net>
<appender name="DebugAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<file value="plastic.debug.log.txt" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<rollingStyle value="Date" />
<datePattern value=".yyyyMMdd" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%date %thread %property{TransactionID} %property{ClientMachine} %-5level %logger - %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
<appender name="RelevantAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<file value="plastic.relevant.log.txt" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<rollingStyle value="Date" />
<datePattern value=".yyyyMMdd" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%date %property{ClientMachine} %-5level %logger - %message%newline" />
</layout>`enter code here`
</appender>
<logger name="Security">
<level value="ERROR" />
<appender-ref ref="RelevantAppender" />
</logger>
<logger name="ServerStats">
<level value="INFO" />
<appender-ref ref="RelevantAppender" />
</logger>
<root>
<level value="DEBUG" />
<appender-ref ref="DebugAppender" />
</root>
You're problem is, that the definition you make in Logger outweights all following levels. So here comes my solution:
<log4net>
<appender name="DebugAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<file value="plastic.debug.log.txt" />
<!--...-->
</appender>
<appender name="Security_RelevantAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<threshold value="ERROR" />
<lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />
<file value="plastic.relevant.log.txt" />
<!--...-->
</appender>
<appender name="Serverstat_RelevantAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<threshold value="INFO" />
<lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />
<!--...-->
</appender>
<logger name="Security">
<appender-ref ref="Security_RelevantAppender" />
</logger>
<logger name="ServerStats">
<appender-ref ref="Serverstat_RelevantAppender" />
</logger>
<root>
<level value="DEBUG" />
<appender-ref ref="DebugAppender" />
</root>
</log4net>
Define 3 different appenders. The DebugAppender's level is defined by <root>. The two relevant appenders write both to the same file with different log-levels (thresholds). It is important, that you include the locking model <lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />. Utherwise the first appender you call will lock the file and the second one can not write in it (Can Log4net have multiple appenders write to the same file?). In the <logger> you just define the two different appenders and no loglevel. This way it will take the level from the appender settings.
When you do it like this all events of the type debug+ from any logger will be written to plastic.debug.log.txt. To plastic.relevant.log.txt only events error+ from security-logger and info+ from serverstat-logger are written.
Hope this helps

How to log in Azure Webjob with Log4net?

I have a web project and a console project. I've published my web project on Azure (after having the console app attached as a Azure Webjob to the web project).
Now I want to use Log4net to log in files. It works for the web project but I can't get it to work for the Webjob...
Here is my log4net config :
<log4net>
<appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<file type="log4net.Util.PatternString" value="./_logs/[%date{yyyy-MM-dd-HH}]_webjob.log" />
<lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<rollingStyle value="Size" />
<maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
<maximumFileSize value="4096KB" />
<staticLogFileName value="true" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%newline %date [%thread] %-5level %logger - %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
<logger name="myloggername">
<level value="ALL" />
<appender-ref ref="FileAppender" />
</logger>
Some guy said it would work with a absolute path but it doesn't :
<file type="log4net.Util.PatternString" value="D:/home/site/wwwroot/App_Data/Logs/AccountMaintenance/log4net_%date{yyyyMMdd}.log" />
Please try the following value instead:
<file type="log4net.Util.PatternString" value="d:\home\logfiles\mylogfile.log" />

Is there a way to have log4net create log file only when there is logging activity?

We changed our log4net file name to include the current date but only want log files created on those dates that there is logged activity. This is our current configuration:
<log4net>
<appender name="RollingFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
<file type="log4net.Util.PatternString" value="{0}\\logfiles\\log%date{{yyyyMMdd}}-${{COMPUTERNAME}}.log" />
<appendToFile value="true" />
<lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />
<rollingStyle value="Size" />
<maxSizeRollBackups value="10" />
<maximumFileSize value="10MB" />
<staticLogFileName value="true" />
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%date %-5level %logger %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
<root>
<level value="WARN" />
<appender-ref ref="RollingFileAppender" />
</root>
</log4net>
It's producing empty files on days when the logger is created but no messages of WARN or greater are written. Is there a configuration to prevent empty files?

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